Please, please don't look at it this way. :)

I think this is honestly just innocent misunderstandings all around:

• you create the post with what you think is an honest invite to discussion

• other people viewed it as more of a "look at wonderful me, helping these idiots who don't know anything" post

• they responded based on that incorrect impression (they thought you were being less than sincere, so they responded in kind)

• you then felt you were being unjustly attacked, and responded in a way designed to dismiss/shut down the "attacks"

• they then viewed your responses as "proof" that their initial impression was right (that you weren't trying to have a sincere conversation, you were just picking a fight)

• and so on...

If you look for it, you'll see this type of scenario all the time online - tone is so easily lost in text, and once we think someone is being a jerk, we naturally get angry and defensive. So a bunch of people who show up with good intentions wind up leaving pissed off and with needless bad will towards each other.

There are so many instances where "irreconcilable differences" are simply the result of humanity's universally crummy communication skills.

And that's kind of a tragic idea, you know? More so because our problem is baked in to our psychology ... even seeing it doesn't stop us from doing it.

This is an extraordinarily important topic... I hope you'll raise it again in another post :)